Tim Keller - On the Mountain

I think since I'm the first plenary speaker here I should say at least something about the gathering itself and just this we're we we're here to connect women to here and do Bible exposition as you can see though of course you get anybody together we tend to talk somewhat about our situation our social location our moment time and history but in general we're not gospel coalition did not bring women together here to talk and think about women but the talking thing about God and just as every culture each culture of the world by God's common grace has its peculiar glories and tends to be attentive to and aware of things in the scripture that maybe some of the other cultures don't see so altogether is the various cultures bring their their exegetical riches their their their theological understanding of the fallible Word of God to the whole church the whole church is enriched that would have to also be true of each of the genders that for for women to come together to hear and do Bible exposition rather than just talking about God not just talking about women will certainly enrich all of you participating here but wherever this goes we want to enrich the whole church by women coming together to listen and to do Bible exposition and do theology so it's actually an honor to be one of the outlaws who is allowed to come and address this body now they gave me a lot of time which is a very dangerous thing to do and I'm going to try to be a good example by just walking you right through one entire chapter the Bible an extremely important chapter the Bible Exodus 19 I'm going to read you all maybe not all at once I'm going to read you and go through all twenty-five verses it's an extremely important chapter it's where of course Moses and the Israel come to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments chapter 19 does not contain the Ten Commandments but it sets it up extremely important and Exodus 19 is look back to and we'll get to to the sue Hebrews 12 first Peter 2 and all sorts of other extremely important New Testament texts that look back to it because it's so important in the history of God's saving purposes and so what we're going to do is just walk through it section by section and I'm actually going to divide the passage or the chapter into three basic sections I like to first I think in the first eight verses we're going to see something about the history and order of grace the middle section from verses nine to twenty we're going to see indeed the terrifying and beckoning God and in the last five verses we're going to see the going down of Moses go down Moses and what that meant so the history and order of grace the terrifying a beckoning God and the going down of Moses and what that meant so let me just read you the first eight verses of chapter 19 of Exodus on the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt on that very day they came to the desert of Sinai after they set out from refa 'dom they entered the desert of Sinai and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain then Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said this is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did a t' and how i carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself now if you obey me and fully keep my covenant then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession although the whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words you are to speak to the Israelites so Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak the people all responded together we will do everything the Lord has said so Moses brought their answer to the Lord let's stop right there I said the history and order of grace and reason I'm saying that is because the first couple of verses I think tell us something about the history put it this way and by the way alec metier wrote a Bible it's in the series the Bible speaks today a kind of commentary on exodus since we're here to do Bible exposition and Bible study I would recommend that that book it's a tremendous book you couldn't do any better at understanding the book of Exodus which is a long and actually very complicated book and alec metier points out something in these first two verses that you wouldn't think of unless you were a biblical scholar who who keep you know keeps a map in his head I guess as he's reading he says you know God and Moses basically said to the Israelites trust us we're going to take you to the promised land to a land flowing with milk and honey to Palestine and the children visual trusted them and now please note materials out that Sinai was further away from the promised land in Egypt it was actually south if you know how the plantain Peninsula goes it was further away so God led them in the opposite direction almost from where he said he was going to lead them and they were supposed to go to a land flowing with milk and honey and yet it even says so right there he takes them into a desert and it was a mountainous desert it was a land with far worse than Egypt and other courts he said I'm going to take you over here so he took him to a place it was farther from there than Egypt was and worse than Egypt and that's where he meets them and it is often so you give your life to Jesus you give your life to the Lord you say I'm putting everything in your hands I'm trusting you with my whole life and just watch things go downhill from there weeks later months later a couple years later you say what happened I gave myself to him and I trusted him and everything's getting worse and worse yeah and if you admit it you're farther away from the things you hope that was going to be giving you I'm giving him everything surely he'd give me this and this and this you know if he wants to and of course God seems to be taking you in an opposite direction so often the history of grace in our lives follows this that God seems to be taking us away from where he says he's going to take us it seems like you give yourself to him and things get worse we're my two favorite penultimate biblical examples of this and my favorite ultimate applicable example of this pattern follow the two penultimate both happened at Dothan back in the in the book of Genesis some terrible thing happens in the area that was later the city of Dothan you know Jacob had a group of children he had a whole lot of sons and because he had always loved Rachel more than Leah he'd always loved one wife more than another wife he favored Rachel who died favored her children over the other children and it had elderly poisoned everything and everybody in that family there is nothing worse than really really overt parental favoritism you know that and it had poisoned Joseph who was one of the two children who was a favorite he'd become spoiled he'd become arrogant even though he was only a teenager he had he was on his way to being an absolutely cruel awful person and it had completely destroyed the the family system is a weak weak say today of the place because the rest of his brothers were bitter and they were cynical and they had they had you know you know both love-hate relationships with their father and they were filled with cynicism and anger toward Joseph and Benjamin and it was a mess and in the Dothan area far away from home when the brothers who were out shepherding saw Joseph come to them in that lonely place they took him they threw him in a pit they sold him into slavery in Egypt and there you might say Joseph probably turned to the god of his father in the pit on the trip in the dungeon he ended up in down in Egypt and for years and years said get me out of here silence something happened in Dothan years later Elijah the prophet and his servant were locked up in the city and there were it was besieged and they thought they're going to lose their lives and they prayed and of course the eyes of Elijah's serpent was opened and they saw chariots of fire all around the city and then God delivered them dramatically the next day okay now that's that's that's the way it's supposed to be okay you know here's one guy in Dothan he prays and prays nothing happens for years and years decades God never answered seems to answer needed prayer another guy prays chariots of fire the point is that when we get to the end of the book of Genesis we see that God was actually as operative in Joseph's life with His grace as he was in Elijah's life but here's the difference Elijah needed what he needed some fairly simple kind of salvation he needed help from an army but Joseph and Jacob and all those guys they needed something way deeper they had they needed their souls saved and have you ever just what if God just showed up to Joseph just showed up the blaze of fire and said you are a spoiled brat do you realize that if you keep up going the way you are and is self-centered as you are you're going to destroy your life and nobody's going to like you and you're going to make a mess of your marriage even if God showed up and say have you ever tried to do that with a teenager even if God shows up and said that's what teenager they won't listen to you he wouldn't listen to you nobody John Newton the great hymn writer and pastor at one point wrote in a letter John Newton said no one ever learned they were a sinner by being told they have to be shown they have to be shown and it took years and years and years for God to break Joseph and his brothers and his father open to grace it took years and years and I can't recount that story but you know at the very end of the book of Genesis God Joseph turns to his brothers Genesis 50 verse 20 it says you meant it for evil but God meant it for good we got to the promised land through the desert we were looking for the promised land God took us in the desert but that was the weight of the promised land the ultimate example of course Jesus Christ shows up begins to preach the kingdom of God think of his followers saying yeah kingdom of God lion laying down with a lamb yeah every tear wiped away yeah next thing you know on the cross on the cross dying in agony and imagine could unite would be very hard to imagine some of Jesus followers looking up and saying I don't see what good guy could bring out of this yet of course we know the way to get to the resurrection is through the cross the way to get to the ultimate resurrection of the new heavens and new earth is unless Jesus Christ dies on the cross unless he goes through all of that desert all of that wilderness unless he goes through all of that suffering he can't come back and end evil without ending us and if he wants to come back and put everything right and evil without asking us ending us he has to go to the cross in other words again the weight of the promised land was through the desert so often that's how grace works are you ready for that when John Newton some other places everything is needful that he sends nothing can be needful that he with holds think about that the rest of your life it'll do you good and that's just the history of grace the other thing we see in these first eight verses is the order of grace now let me go back to Alec metier great bible expositor himself and bible scholar Old Koller and this is what he says he looks at these three verses here verses five basically verses four five and six listen I'll read them again you have seen what I did to Egypt how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant then out of all the nations you will be treasured possession although the whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and here's what alak metier says he said there's three things there the sequence of these central elements in verses four five and six is extremely important for understanding the whole Bible the sequence is saving acts of the Lord verse four our responsive obedience verse 5 a and the blessing which the obedience brings verse 5 B and 6 a and then he says nothing and this is very strong for you know an academic scholarly commentator he says nothing must ever be allowed to upset this order salvation by grace obedience blessing see what he's saying nothing must ever in your mind upset that sequence that's the order or put it another way God did not give the children of Israel the law he didn't appear and give them the law of God the Ten Commandments and then have them say we will do everything the Lord says and then he says good now I'll save you I'll take you out of Egypt on eagle's wings no he saves them he takes them out lets you know what eagle's wings means they didn't fight their way out they didn't even run out they'd even walk out in a sense of course they literally did but what what God's trying to get across is when an eagle you know brings you out it means you don't do anything it's sheer grace had nothing to do with you no performance at all so God saves you by sheer grace and then he says now because I've saved you by sheer grace obey me not obey me and I'll save you I've saved you now obey me and metier adds this he says the whole narrative the whole history from the Passover to the Exodus to Mount Sinai is quote it is in fact the largest part of it is in fact yes the largest and most extended a visual aid can't Ramon writing he says the whole narrative arc is in fact the largest and most extended visual aid ever planned visual aid a visual aid of what the gospel was think of this an Israelite could have said this I was in bondage under penalty of death and in slave in a foreign land but I took shelter under the blood of the Lamb and I was let out and saved by the mighty arm of God I did nothing nothing at all that it in order to accomplish it it was all done for us by the Lord and then we came to the place where God showed us how to begin to live out our salvation he gave us the law and now we haven't reached the promised land yet oh no and we often fail and fall but we even have a way of constantly dealing with our sins through his attempt through the atoning sacrifice through the through the blood and we haven't arrived to the promised land but eventually we're going to get there now that's what an Israelite would have said during this period of time and a Christian says every single one of those things to every single one of them we were enslaved we were under penalty of death we take shelter of the blood of the Lamb because we're saved by grace sheer grace God tells us now this is how I want you to live out your salvation this is how I want my saved people to live and now even though we're certainly aren't perfect and we fall down it's bringing us to the promised land it's taking us where we want to go and therefore alloc materially right it's the most astounding visual aid it's the gospel writ large and as he says you'll never understand the whole Bible unless you understand grace then obedience then blessing not grace blessing will be obedience grace blessing Oh No grace obedience blessing and of course at the heart of this is this question if it was law than deliverance we would say you obey therefore God accepts you but since its deliverance then Sinai the law the gospel is I'm accepted I'm accepted because of Jesus Christ the blood of Jesus Christ therefore I obey there is nothing more important to understand superficially a person who actually operates I'm accepted I'm a therefrom accepted and a person who says I'm accepted therefore I obey they're both probably trying to obey the 10 commandments are they not see theoretically if you have the Ten Commandments now I'll deliver you verses I deliver you now here's the Ten Commandments on the surface they both be obeying the Ten Commandments but consider this the person who understands the gospel who understands this sequence will be motivated by love and gratitude and the other person the person says I better obey if I'm going to be delivered is operating out of fear so they're both trying to do the right thing but one out of joy and gratitude one out of fear one is operating essentially self-centered ly say it's self-centered to say well if I obey then God will bless me and he'll answer my person take me to heaven what do you why are you obeying God to get things but a person who knows that you already have everything in Jesus Christ you've already been saved by grace why do you obey you obey not to get things from God you obey to get God you obey to please him and resemble him and love him and and delight him and honor him you know utterly different inner dynamics a person who says well if I better obey so I'll be delivered always a person who says not I'm accepted therefore obey but I obey therefore I'm accepted that person's obedience is virtually always conditional you know what I mean by that that is to say this is a person who's always saying been really pretty good I've been doing everything I've been praying I've been reading my Bible I've been you know you know exercising sexual self-control I've been charitable to the poor and my life isn't going very well and her life she's not doing any of those things and her life's going very well what's going on if you ever feel like that you've probably got the sequence room you might get an A in your Exodus exam but you don't get what that means because if it's true that you obey because you've already been accepted then again what what would the conditions be see in other words you're saying I'm doing this because because of what I've already received from him and we can go on I don't think I will go on but let me show you one last thing under this heading which is extremely important alik metier that the blessings God says I saved you now obey me and these blessings will come and he names the three blessings metier actually presses a little bit and says he actually thinks that God is almost saying the blessings are yours and yet they're not yet yours notice he doesn't and metier he doesn't say I want to make my covenant with you he says I want you to keep my covenant and the hint is that God's saying I've already brought you into a relationship with me now I want you to make it formal or another way to put it is is the blessings are there for you they're yours in principle because I saved you by my grace but now it's through obedience that you will actually realize them that's materials understanding I think he's right well what are those blessings look you'll be my treasure you'll be a kingdom of priests you'll be a holy nation first of all you'll be my treasure the word treasure there is a pretty specific Hebrew word that meant the personal wealth of an ancient King in those days Kings were absolute monarchs which meant they essentially owned everything if you were the king of a land you essentially owned everything in the land practically but this was a word for your private personal wealth something that was your own possession something that you love so much that you took and you put it in your room and it was your own personal delight and God has the audacity to say so on the one hand obviously he's already treasured that Marie wouldn't have saved them on the other hand he's saying if you a baby you will be my treasured possession what is that that's that's why metier is right here and saying obviously God has already treasured them he's already treating them as if you are my treasured possession you are you are a jewel you are that which I delighted he had he's saying I want you to obey into that kind of relationship I want you to obey so we I guess can treasure each other and think of how obedience works in a relationship like that if you fall in love with someone what do you start to do think about it like this when you fall in love with somebody you try to find out what pleases him right you try to find out what what makes him happy what delights him what he likes right and then you want to surprise him by giving it to him or doing it what are you doing you don't think of it this way you don't use this term you are seeking the will of the beloved you're trying to find out your beloved's will what what your beloved wants what delights and pleases and you are complying you're essentially obeying your beloved's well why because you want to delight him Sinclair Ferguson friend of mine did a set of lectures years ago on the difference between legalism and antinomianism and these are the two you know the other words the gospel is you are accepted therefore you obey legalism is you obey therefore God accepts you antinomianism is you really don't have to obey me there is no God or God accepts you no matter how you live and you know he loves everybody and he accepts everybody and Sinclair in that lecture in this set of lectures made a point I really thought was interesting he says most of us tend to think of legalism antinomianism is opposites actually he says are the same they're both opposed to the gospel because neither of them understand the grace of obedience neither of them understand the the graciousness of obedience he actually says most antinomian x' are x legalists who are broken under the fact that they could never really understand why you need to obey to have to treasure your treasure to be treasured by your treasure it's a love relationship but that's not all the other thing he says here is you will also become a holy nation now a holy nation literally means a different kind of human society because the word holy means separate distinct and one of the great things that God is playing in front of us here is he's trying to say to them and trying to say to all of us I want you in obey so that you really will be different when you're let's get real practical when the gospel gets your egos sorted when the gospel gets the human ego sorted so you're not constantly whip lashing back and forth between thinking too much of yourself and being all wood down on yourself when the gospel gets the ego kind of demoted decentered sorted by humbling it into the dust with a knowledge that you're a sinner and then affirming it to the skies by telling you right light rightly that you're now a son or daughter of the king and you can't lose that status because there's no condemnation that was in Christ Jesus it just shuts up the ego just shut up just stop it stop all the whining and what and when you are actually even even in a group of six people who have had that kind of gospel surgery on your egos you're not down on yourself you're not up on yourself you know is I think CS Lewis said you don't think less of yourself or more yourself you just think of yourself less what a beautiful community you can have what remarkable transparent relationships what candor what comfort how wonderful no pecking order no biting and devouring each other and of course holy nation doesn't just mean good relationships it also means that money sex and power operate completely differently when the ego is sorted and therefore a human society a Christian godly society that have gospel change hearts is going to be a community that shows the world something amazing when Jesus Christ says to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount you all of course it's talking corporately are the light of the world if we really were anything like the way he describes his disciples life in the Sermon on the Mount which i think is actually just describing what a holy nation is go you want to know what a holy nation is go read the Sermon on the Mount and if we really live like that oh we would be the light of the world we would be and then he says you'll be a kingdom of priests a kingdom of priests and I agree I agree with most of the commentators that say there's a well it's a well that is an incredibly rich concept what does it mean to be a priest it does mean have access to God but in particular priests priests bring people together priests or mediators a priest bring people outside into a connection with a God that they have access to inside and probably what what God is talking about here is very very simple if we have a relationship of love in which we're treasuring each other and if you really do become a holy nation you will be the light of the world you will be showing the world my glory and so why do you obey now you don't obey to get except you don't obey to get out of Egypt because you're already out of Egypt why do you obey now you will be to know him to love him to serve him to display him and this is the reason why everything about this does last thing on this passage this part everything about this is different than the religion that Canaanite religions all the religions around you know that so for example most of the ancient cities were built around a ziggurat what was a ziggurat a kind of pyramid what was a pyramid it was a temple but why was it built like that because the priests and the holy people would go up to the top to find God that to offer sacrifices to get the favor of the gods what do you think Mount Sinai is mont sinaï is God's chosen ziggurat it's a pyramid but instead of us trying to go up to find God build ourselves up you know what kind of a ladder I'm going to do this I'm going to offer sacrifice that way with that God's going to have to bless us no no all other religion says if you do this and this and this you know you will find God you will find God no no the Christianity says in Jesus Christ God came to find you God comes down you don't go up God descends that's the whole idea here in fact even this stuff about having no sex which is which we're going to read here in a bit you know you mustn't get ready to meet God it was always trying to say we do not want to be like the Canaanites we don't want to be like all the other religions because our religion isn't just a little bit different it's not just like we worship God but our guy's a little bit different than your God the very way in which we approach God is exactly the opposite in every way I brought you on eagle's wings to myself I you know I did everything for you I brought you on eagle's wings and not just to get out but to myself that's grace my heart owns none before thee for thy rich grace I thirst this knowing if I love thee thou must have loved me first now the second section which I'm about to read in deed is the terrifying and beckoning God and while I probably could have divided the first part into verses 1 & 2 the history of grace and then verses you know 3 to 8 the order of grace that sequence here verses that 9 I'm going to read you this verses 9 to 20 you actually have the fact that God is terrifying get beggining beckoning to us he's frightening he's unapproachable and yet he's approaching at once let me read it to you so the Lord said to Moses I'm going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and we'll always put their trust in you then Moses said told the Lord what the people had said and the Lord said to Moses go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai and sight of all the people put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death they are to be stoned or shot with arrows not a hand is to be laid on them no person or animal shall be permitted to live only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they even approach the mountain after Moses had gone down the mountain to the people he consecrated them and what they washed their clothes then he said to the people prepare yourselves for the third day abstain from sexual relations and on the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast everyone in the camp trembled then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God and they stood at the foot of the mountain Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace and the whole mountain trembled violently and as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him now the visual and auditory effects are just astonishing and they're recounted in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 18 and we're going to get back to this passage in a second you have not come pardon me yes that's right this is hebrews chapter 12 verse 18 basically - 21 you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire - darkness gloom and storm - a trumpet blaster - such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded that even if even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned the sight was so terrifying that Moses said I am trembling with fear look there were seven things mentioned there even in Hebrews fire deep darkness gloom storms there were thunder and lightning trumpet blast the voice but more than that you'll be killed if you touch the mountain and later on because we're going to see God says I might break out against you you might perish so don't get too close God is not a warm fuzzy in fact let's see maybe maybe somewhere else it's different well he appears to Jacob no he was a powerful wrestler that's not so good he appears to job hmm he's a hurricane have you ever seen a hurricane tornado I have Moses he's a blazing fire twice Joshua he appears to Joshua but he's a man of war armed to the teeth Ezekiel just go to Ezekiel one I don't know what he saw but it was like overwhelming he saw the glory of God it's one of the most astonishing things ever written in any kind of human literature it's really to me I think his he killed his tree he was trying to describe it and he just sort of went nuts and actually some pretty smart commentators make a pretty good case that he in some ways was just he was trying to describe something that words couldn't describe and of course when Moses actually met God later on in Exodus 33 and says show me your glory God says I can't it would kill you now why specifically what is so terrifying about God I don't want to go too much into this because you're going to hear a great exposition by John Piper on isaiah 6 which is the greatest passage i think in the bible explaining what it means to encounter the holiness of god but i won't talk about isaiah i want to just talk about what i see in the rest of the scripture and that's this why is it that the people are trembling why is god so terrifying is it just they're afraid of getting hit or getting hit by lightning uh-huh it's much more profound than that and the terrifying nature of god does not have to have visual and auditory accompaniments at all why well here's my answer we are so we're in such deep denial about how bad we are if you knew really i mean you say it because we're christians we're supposed to talk about being sinners if you could actually see what's sniffling cowards we really are if we could actually see what depths of cruelty were really really capable of i think we would die if you were you know why because our self-image no matter how hard we try to say oh I know that God loves me and the reason why I have any kind of self regard is because God loves me but even I think what I can tell even the most experienced and mature Christians to a great degree rest their self regard and there's the ability to look themselves in the mirror and look other people in the eye because they say I'm actually a pretty good person I'm a you know I worked hard I'm a pretty decent person I've tried it you basically have a self image still based largely on your virtue something some version you know blue collar people white collar people every culture has got a different way but somehow I'm a good guy I'm a good person I'm a decent person I work very hard and if you were to actually see what you really liked he died because it would be a self quake the self would just disintegrate and once talked to a counselor a woman who was a counselor at an Ivy League school and she said oh my word she says most of the people most the kids who get into Ivy League's she said have spent they haven't had an a since like pre-kindergarten I a b-plus since pre-kindergarten they've they've gotten these great grades and to a great degree their self-image is based on the idea that I'm smart I'm one of the smart ones I'm the smartest kid in town that's how they look themselves in the mirror that's how they look other people in the eye that's how that's what their whole self-image is based on it's a disaster than to actually get into an Ivy League school because everybody else is just as smart and they can't give everybody a Z vain' though by the way Patt professors at Ivy League schools are under enormous psychological pressure to give everybody is and one of the reasons is because the kids can't take it emotionally somebody's got to get a B gonna see somebody I mean don't you have to and there's enormous pressure and why they're experiencing a self quake that when you thought you're really smart all your life and you get into the presence of people who are clearly so far beyond you you don't even know how you're going to keep up it's just incredibly traumatic you end up on the couch in the counselor's office like well I don't know who I am I don't know who I am listen if getting into the presence of just human superlative news practically decimates you what must it be like to get into the presence of God the greatness of God even a sense of the greatness of God makes you feel tiny even a sense of the holiness of God makes you feel so impure and flawed even a sense of the beauty of God makes you feel absolutely shriveled ugly absolutely and that's the reason why when Isaiah gets near him I am unclean wipe when Peter even gets a vision of the greatness of Jesus he says depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man you just fall apart and you don't have to have the yeah like I said you don't have to actually have thunder and lightning recently I was preaching through the Sermon on the mountain I found something very interesting Virginia stem Owens who's a professor of English and literature some years ago she was teaching a University course in a major secular university and as a kind of exercise she gave her class the exercise of reading the Sermon on the Mount and writing a response paper to it and most of the kids must have been heard of it some hadn't heard of it and very few of them had any acquaintance with it at all and so she read the response papers and she wasn't surprised and yet she was they hated it they utterly hated it in a 19th century liberal theology and you know people say would say oh you know the important thing is not what you believe about you know doctrine or Dogma or anything like that the important thing is that you just live like the Sermon on the Mount because it's so beautiful that's what a Christian ought to live like they clearly have never read it because when her students read it this is the some couple things they said quote I did not like the Sermon on the Mount it made me feel like I had to be perfect and no one is here's no one said quote the things asked in this sermon are absurd to look at a woman like that as adultery to be angry and to insult someone's like murder these are the most extreme stupid unhuman statements I have ever heard and see what Oh what Virginia Samoans knew was they were desperately looking for cover because when you read the Sermon on the Mount you know this is how you want people to live like around you you just don't think you can do it yourself and you realize wait a minute wait a minute it says this is an arrow pointing at my heart and Virginia stem Owen says this she concluded she says finally biblical illiteracy has come to the point where people are able to respond to Jesus without filling filtering it through 2,000 years of cultural haze honest ignorant ears hear it as it is and it's terrifying I think it was dr. Lloyd Jones is some some place said if anyone has ever read the Sermon on the Mount with an open mind they would fall down and cry out god save me from the Sermon on the Mount because what they're experiencing in a little way without the thunder and lightning without all the special effects is the holiness of God and yet well let me just want one more thing CS Lewis as usual puts it in a pretty remarkable way the biblical God he says quote an impersonal God oh we like that well and good a form he says a subjective God of love and goodness inside our heads better still a formless life force surging through every one a vast power with which we can tap best of all but God himself alive pulling at the other end of the cord approaching at infinite speed the hunter the covenant Lord the husband that's quite another matter there comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion suddenly draw back supposing we really found him we never meant it to come to bat we're still supposing he found us if there is a God you are in a sense alone with him you cannot put them off with speculations about your neighbors hypocrisy or memories of what you have read in books what will all that chatter and hearsay count when the anesthetic fog we call the real world fades away and the divine presence in which we have always stood becomes palpable and Mediate and unavoidable now there is an evangelistic pitch the best one I ever heard and yet in spite of the fact that this got is terrifying in the midst and this is comes out with Alok material in his wonderful exposition he says and yet God is not just fire he doesn't come just in fire but in a cloud remember how he already said he said the Lord said to Moses I'm going to come to you in a cloud in a dense cloud and this is what materially impossible to bear and yet what is he doing in a cloud all the time and this is material sense quote he is shrouding not abandoning or diminishing his glory so that he could accommodate himself to live amongst his people to grace them with a presence which in its awfull holiness would otherwise spell their destruction even there he's showing I still want you in my life and I want to be in your life and I know we got a problem the problem is a sinner cannot live in the present Olli God I won't you still how can this terrifying God be a beckoning God or put it another way how in the world can this God who is a God of both fire and cloud which means a God both of absolute holiness and yet love be satisfied because what he wants is holiness and justice and truth and yet he wants us in his arms how's that going - how is that going to happen and the answer is a mediator here's the here's the last part which I call go down Moses and what that meant verse 20 the Lord ascended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain so Moses went up and the Lord said to him go down go down Moses but here it is here it comes from and the Lord said him go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them will perish even the priests who approached the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out against them Moses said to the Lord that people cannot come up Mount Sinai because you yourself warned us put limits around the mountain and set it apart as Holy verse 24 and the Lord replied but go down and bring Aaron up with you let the priests and the people not force their way through to come up to the Lord or he will break out against them so the Lord went down to the people and told them what's going on God well we're not totally sure metier thinks and other commentators think that the people started getting whacks they got near it was scary and yet obviously God would not have brought Moses up to say the people are in danger of trying to come up to get me now that we could preach on that that we're constantly losing our focus but the point is Moses be a mediator go down and warn them and keep them from dying Moses is the mediator Moses is the man on the mountain Moses is the one who's somehow going to be able to keep the people from bit not perishing he's the go-between he's the mediator and in Hebrews 12 we have an answer as to why it was possible for God even to come to them in the cloud back then and why we are in a very different situation now you have not come to a mountain that can be touched that is burning with fire darkness gloom and storm we've went through that know verse 22 but you have come to Mount Zion to the heavenly Jerusalem to the city of the Living God you have come to thousands upon thousands of angels and joyful assembly to the Church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven you have come to God the judge of all men the spirits of righteous men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel what when Cain killed Abel first murder first active real overt human and justice he didn't deserve to die Cain killed him and God comes to Cain and says the blood what have you done remember that he says what have you done the blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground and there's other places where it's where the Bible talks like that that the blood unjust blood spilled cries out justice avenge me the Hebrews writer has the audacity to say Moses was a mediator he kept the people in some kind of relationship with God kept them from you know from being killed by God but Jesus Christ was the ultimate mediator the ultimate mediator why because when he died on the cross his blood cries out grace grace accept them yes of course they had sin but accept them because I have paid their penalty see what was happening to Jesus Christ on the cross here's what was happening Matthew 27 verse 45 then verse 50 and 51 from the sixth hour to the ninth hour darkness came down on all the land and at the ninth hour Jesus Christ cried my God my God why has thou forsaken me and when Jesus had cried aloud in a voice he gave up his spirit and at that moment what the temple the veil in the temple was torn and the rocks shook and the earth was shaken what was going on there the veil is the cloud the veil was the thing that kept the people from being killed by the Shekinah glory but what happened was Jesus was shaken the darkness came down on Jesus the judgment of God came down on Jesus the thunder and lightning came down on Jesus and so now we don't even need the cloud because right into our lives comes the holiness of God we are the temple now what does that mean it means on the one hand absolute joy we can understand this idea of being treasured in a way that the Old Testament Saints just could never have understood we have absolutely no no excuse for not having an intimate prayer life in which we really treasure each other but on the other hand we still need to be holy of course we need to be holy look what he's done for us because he was shaken according to the book of Hebrews we can live unshakeable lives now the rest of the old the New Testament is basically just playing out what we've read here in the Old Testament and we're going to continue during this time to expound other places where this but where the Bible says this is B this is your God so right now as we pray lets behold our God our Father we we thank you for bringing us through the blood of your son which cries out grace grace grace because he was judged because all this fire and all this gloom and all this darkness came down on him and therefore he is a mediator and now you come into our lives and we come into your presence by the precious blood of Christ Lord what does that mean it means holiness of life it means intimacy in prayer it means excited desires to really become a new holy nation and show the world your your glory and your grace and your love in the way in which we live our lives we want to be priests we want to show the world who you are father we ask that you would teach us how to apply this incredible text to our lives by the power of your Holy Spirit and we ask it in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Jayesh Naran

Views: 146,281

Rating: 4.7662339 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Keller, Gospel Coalition, gospel, tim, keller, sermon, god, jesus, Timothy J. Keller (Author)

Id: C6tnnU_wUi8

Length: 50min 32sec (3032 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2013